Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 2h

Justice will be our hammer, and every prosecution a nail for a third reconstruction.

Graham Platner for Senate @grahamformaine.bsky.social · 7h

We have armed secret police kidnapping people off the street based on the color of their skin.

When we win: we will haul them before a Senate committee. The masks will come off. There will be consequences.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8h

Original: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

The political svengali and investor has been giving lectures on ‘an evil king or tyrant … who appears in the end times’

www.theguardian.com

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8h

If a politician ran whose entire platform was “If someone publicly confesses to a crime, I will investigate and prosecute them for that crime.” I would vote for them in a heartbeat.

An excerpt from an article about Peter Thiel:

He believes the Armageddon will be ushered in by an antichrist-type figure who cultivates a fear of existential threats such as climate change, Al and nuclear war to amass inordinate power. The idea is this figure will convince people to do everything they can to avoid something like a third world war, including accepting a one-world order charged with protecting everyone from the apocalypse that implements a complete restriction of technological prog ss. In his mind, this is already happening. Thiel said that international financial bodies, which make it more difficult for people to shelter their wealth in tax havens, are one sign the antichrist may be amassing power and hastening Armageddon, saying: "It's become quite difficult to hide one's money."

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

Multi agent YOLO mode.

🫧 Spark Elation 🫧 @tyranny.sparklenoise.com · 18h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“a supply chain attack”

Queen Olivia III @queenoliviaiii.com · 19h

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

“The tapes wouldn’t start”

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 10h

“Huffing Straussian hyperfarts”

Jake Flores @feraljokes.bsky.social · 17h

I can't believe this is real

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 1d

bsky.app/profile/left...

Em, spookily 👻 @lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 8d

The final piece of good news: it is so easy for you to help! Use the Pilsen Arts & Community House link for the whistle project and check out these other resources

linktr.ee/pilsenartsco...

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 2d

“You’re killing people”

I think most people read/hear this as ~“I am preparing to defend myself and others from you, to your death or mine if necessary.”

Anna Holmes @annabookwriter.bsky.social · 2d

I actually get more annoyed when people say they “just” use AI for their emails or to check their grammar. You’re killing people. For your banal shit. Not for some great discovery or curing cancer. Because you can’t write an email.

Reposted by Holt

rev. howard arson @theophite.bsky.social · 3d

found milei's alt

Quinta Jurecic @qjurecic.bsky.social · 3d

I am formally admitting defeat at understanding the Argentinian economy

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 3d

Have you been to Richard’s Super Premium Ice Cream?

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 3d

I think this is part of why AI discussions are quite difficult. What does it mean for something to “seem to embody a collective hopelessness…”? That question is quite hard to disentangle from an entire worldview.

Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 3d

Generative AI, in both form and content, and whether looked on favourably or critically, seems to embody a collective hopelessness about the prospect of human learning and creativity, if not human knowledge altogether. It’s as if climate change had fans.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 5d

Laser eyes Jennifer Forestal, author of Designing for Democracy.

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 5d

They do abstract constitutional review as well, so it could be that the legislature needed an advisory opinion.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

I would be fine if cars just couldn’t dampen sound at all.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

I’ll probably take to referring to AI generated bugs/tech-debt as “clanker sores”.

your #3 source for absurdist true crime 🔨 @davidgerard.co.uk · 6d

AI SLURS

*ahem*

Clanker
Slopper
Token tanker
Thought stopper

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

Reminded of @chrisblattman.bsky.social ‘s research on gangs as a form of competitive government. (to be clear, neither I nor he has endorsed this)

Dan Mihalopoulos @dmihalopoulos.bsky.social · 6d

High-ranking Chicago Latin King allegedly put $10,000 on the head of Border Patrol Commander Bovino, who led last month's march of heavily armed, uniformed agents through downtown www.chicagotribune.com/2025/10/06/c...

Feds: Chicago gang member solicited murder of Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino

An alleged high-ranking Chicago gang member has been charged with soliciting the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino, the tough-talking commander at the forefront of the Trump adminis…

www.chicagotribune.com

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

Yup. It’s a big party. Japanese politics is arranged a bit differently that how we do it in the US (there’s much more local politics and clientelism). If you want the rigorous history I enjoyed www.cambridge.org/core/books/d...

www.cambridge.org

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

The Liberal Democratic Party (of which Sanae Takichi is part) been the majority party in Japan with very little interruption since ‘55. She is a social/fiscal conservative in some ways, though there are farther right parties in Japan as well.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 6d

Skonk

Merriam-Webster @merriam-webster.com · 6d

skunk = 🦨

skink = 🦎

skank = never mind, this can’t be worth it

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 7d

If they were sentient we wouldn’t own them?

🏳️‍⚧️ Josephine Riesman (Horrifying) @josie.zone · 7d

It is morally wrong to want a computer to be sentient. If you owned a sentient thing, you would be a slaver. If you want sentient computers to exist, you just want to create a new kind of slavery. The ethics are as simple as that. Sorry if this offends

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 7d

That’s definitely one of them!

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 7d

I will say, re the Coates-Klein conversation, that the shear number of different things people believe Klein to have said is rather impressive.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8d

bsky.app/profile/left...

Em, spookily 👻 @lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 8d

The final piece of good news: it is so easy for you to help! Use the Pilsen Arts & Community House link for the whistle project and check out these other resources

linktr.ee/pilsenartsco...

Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8d

I would just like to agree with the implication in your bio here, that your sanity is a thing worth saving.

A highlight from the users BlueSky bio saying “Twitter saved my sanity during lockdown.”

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8d

Which is to say that BlueSky, and most RP initiatives look like a construction at the top of the Ostromian tower of appeals, and it is very difficult to construct a tower from the top down.

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Holt @holt.bsky.social · 8d

I think that Bluesky arose largely out of the ideas of Radical Pluralism, and that movement itself suffers from being influenced too much by Habermas and Hayek and not enough by Ostrom/Dewey.

Ryan J. Gallagher @ryanjgallag.com · 9d

I think Bluesky is building dated approaches to moderation and resolution, compared to how modern the other aspects of the protocol feel

It feels like they pull in the latest tech innovations for the protocol, but none of the latest cutting edge ideas for moderation and trust & safety governance

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